We read that the lyrics on ‘Dopamine’ took a while to hone, and that some songs took you a year to write. Writing music seems to be all about the words for Third Eye Blind, about the lyrics. I think he has a way of communicating content which is timeless, really. Why do you think the song still resonates with so many people today? When it first came out all those years ago, it had a darkness to it – but today it seems to have been infused with a real sense of joy, relief. ‘ Jumper’, we now know, is a song about a gay guy who jumped off a bridge. Lyrically, I think maybe Stephan stayed in that headspace for a while, and some of it lingered onto ‘We Are Drugs.’ None of us had any idea that was ill, far less that he was so close to dying. We had all gotten our Bowie on when we were recording the track ‘Get Me Out Of Here’ for ‘Dopamine’. ‘Dopamine’ has at least two David Bowie references.īowie is a huge influence on, I think, anyone who has made music in the last how many years, but the references to him on the record were timely, for sure. We want to just jump into the studio as we have the songs, ready to record, instead of over-thinking a whole record and concept, and whatnot. That comment was more about full-length studio records and about releasing more frequently, whenever we feel like it, really. Is that still the case, and why? You did release the seven-track ‘We Are Drugs’ EP this year, which is almost an album in length. We read a few interviews in which you said you were done with albums after ‘Dopamine’. Also, we’re always surprised when people complain about political content in our songs, like, who have they been listening to for the last twenty years? So, for people to show up to that show and learn that ‘Jumper’ was written about a gay man, it provokes that conversation, I think. What’s really surprising is the lack of that conversation a lot of the time. Listen, we have Republican fans even members of our touring crew are Republican and we all happily discuss political differences all the time, but it’s a conversation. We’re kind of used to being considered the underdogs, so that sort of mob mentality doesn’t faze us.ĭo you think that perhaps people should’ve known better anyway, considering the fact that Stephan Jenkins did once write a commentary piece for The Huffington Post entitled ‘ Why We Aren’t Playing at the RNC’?
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I mean, you couldn’t walk down the street without religious fanatics and anti-abortion slogans being screamed at you. They chose the time and place for that show, and it worked out well we were on a nationwide tour at the time, so we rolled into town that morning and it was everywhere.
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That’s a charity we’ve worked with in the past we have a relationship with them. Were you at all concerned about hurting the Musicians on Call charity and fundraiser? It appears that all anyone can talk about these days is the RNC-adjacent performance in Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – it’s been dubbed a ‘troll-tastic’ event, in which you asked the audience members, at one point, to raise their hands if they believed in science. We catch up with Kryz via email ahead of the band’s debut in Malaysia for Rockaway Festival to talk about David Bowie, ‘Dopamine’, and ’90s nostalgia reunion booms – not that the band has time for nostalgia.
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In June, the semi-charmed American alt-rock juggernaut took centre stage at a Republican National Convention-linked charity event in Cleveland, during which the band played deeper cuts from their catalogue, proclaimed their support for LGBT rights, and at one point, asked the audience members to raise their hands if they believed in science.
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‘We feel that the EP is very immediate, and a snapshot of the band today,’ says Kryz Reid, lead guitarist of Third Eye Blind, on the politically-peppered release. The pop rockers of the ’90s, whose appeal lies partly in sly songwriting and partly in their ability to trigger nostalgia whiplash, released their fifth record ‘Dopamine’ last year, rumoured to be their final – before promptly following it up with the seven-track EP ‘We Are Drugs’ in October.